


Kitty

by Mirasol_201



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Human!Kitty, Illustrations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:28:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 11,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25726699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirasol_201/pseuds/Mirasol_201
Summary: What if, on that day in the old school, what Emil and Sigrun saved from Spidey-dog wasn´t a cat but a human child.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> So the other day on the forum, the question was flying around what SSSS could have been if Kitty was a Human. Here is my version of it.
> 
> Art of what (child)Kitty looks like in this story (by me), the second picture will (most likely) not be relevant for this story: 
> 
> (Slightly polished version of what I posted on the SSSScriptorium)

It looked like the little girl was starting to feel better. She didn´t seem to be scared of the crew anymore, and when Mikkel had offered her food this morning, she had eaten with great appetite. Only asking her what her family was doing at that old school and how she survived that long proved to be difficult. She only spoke Danish with a strange heavy accent, and not well at that. Like someone who wasn´t used to talking. That made sense, all things considered, surviving in the silent world with little protection and shelter required to be able to stay quiet. And the kid was… 9 years old, at most. If his theory was correct, she had never lived in a safe place. So that she was better at communicating with small gestures and occasional sounds made sense. She probably never learned to do it differently. And that her only reaction to Sigrun speaking in extra loud and slow Norwegian accompanied with a lot of hand-waving was visible (and slightly startled) confusion made sense too. When the captains voice started to get increasingly louder and the poor kid started looking around like a cornered animal Mikkel decided it was time to step in. 

“Maybe I should try. I think you are scaring her. She seems to understand some Danish, at least.” Sigrun let out a frustrated growl and stepped away.

Mikkel took a chair and sat down opposite to the little girl. She had long, fuzzy, red hair that ended in dark-brown tips. Truly a unique coloring. Emil and Tuuri had been cooing over how pretty it was earlier. 

“Hej”, he said, in Danish, and a lot more muted than Sigrun. The girl looked at him with her big blue eyes in surprise. “I am Mikkel. Can you tell me what your name is?”, he continued. The girl blinked and said nothing. Maybe that was too complicated. 

“What is your name?”, he tried again. She looked down very concentrated, as if she was deciphering the sentence word by word. 

After a few seconds she answered. “Misse.” The kid smiled a little. “Mom said Missekat. Sometimes.” 

Tuuri, who had been busy contacting the home base over the new situation seemed to be done and had appeared behind Mikkel. “Aww, her name is Kitty? That means Kitty, right?” She was talking Icelandic. 

“Yes, it means Kitty.” Mikkel smiled too. “But I think that was just a nickname.” 

“Still, it´s so cute! I need to tell the others.” With that she scurried away.

The little girl´s eyes followed her curiously. But Mikkel had to stop her from getting up. He had to ask her more. It was important for the protocol.

“Do you know how old you are? Uh… How old are you? How many years?” 

The girl… Misse, concentrated again, but seemed to come to no conclusion. She ended up just looking at Mikkel in confusion. Ok, she didn´t know. The protocol would be fine with an estimate. There were other, more important questions.

“The house where we found you… do you know which one?” Misse concentrated, longer this time. After a while she nodded.

“Did you live there? Was it your home?” The girl squinted her eyes. Slowly she started nodding, then shaking her head, then nodding again, until freezing in the middle of the movement. She thought carefully about her choice of words.

“Yes no. Home for the rain. For today. But new. ”

That was about what Mikkel had expected. “So, where did you live. Where was your home.”

Misse shrugged. “Changing. Where it´s safe.” She sank down with an unhappy face. “But wasn´t safe.”

Mikkel sighed. He didn´t want to remind her too much of what happened, so short after it happened. Sigrun and Emil had been looking for books in an old school two days ago (and only brought home old Data-devices for which the required technology was lost…) and ran into a dog-beast. By the time they got there it had already killed Misse´s mother. She had been unarmed. Her very young kids had been hiding in an old, overflowing canal. Misse was the only one that hadn´t drowned yet. She didn´t cry for help. It was pure luck that Emil saw her before it was too late. 

The girl had been mainly unharmed, some scratches from sharp objects in the canal, that was all. She had a scar on her arm that looked like the bite of a beast. But it appeared to be really old. She was most likely immune. Since there were no newer bites, Mikkel had decided it was safe to let Tuuri and Reynir near the kid. With their masks on, for now. He needed a way to confirm her immunity. Maybe Misse even knew herself. It wouldn´t hurt asking. And would also be a good change of subject.

“The disease that turns animals and humans into monsters…”

“Rash”, she said. Good, she knew.

“Can you get it? Can you get sick?”

She showed the scar on her arm. “No. This was sick small animal. Long ago. Bit me. I didn´t get sick.”

Mikkel inspected the arm closer this time. Yes, the bite looked at least a year old. But judging by how well it was still visible, it must have been deep. She would have definitely gotten the rash if she wasn´t immune. It looked like she was in the clear. But just to be safe, he would still advise Reynir and Tuuri to wear their masks until the possible incubation-time was over. He nodded. 

“Okay. That is all. Are you hungry?”

Misse smiled again. “Yes.”

Finally someone who appreciated his cooking. 

“Alright. Here, take a blanket so you don´t get cold and go outside.” He knew she wouldn´t understand him, so he just directly put the blanket in her arms and gestured towards the door. “I will make dinner.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We´ll see how far I get with this, this was originally supposed to end after the first chapter...


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kitty gets a bath. So does everyone else. None of the baths in this chapter are taken voluntarily.

“We can´t just call her “Kitten”, can we? That´s a dumb name.” As she said that, Sigrun stirred around in her food with a look as if it was poisonous.

“She is not named “Kitten”. That was just a nickname her mother gave her. Her name is Misse.” Mikkel ignored Sigruns disgusted gestures towards dinner. The little girl had eaten with a glow in her eyes he had rarely ever seen on anyone who got to experience his cooking before. He was flattered that she enjoyed it. Sigrun couldn´t ruin that for him.

“Same difference.” The captain shrugged.

The younglings were already done with eating. Lalli had just headed out to scout out their next stop. Because of Misse, the crew had remained where they were for longer than planned and everyone was starting to get nervous. But the kid´s family had needed a proper burial. That was the least they could have done for them. On the day of Misse´s finding, everyone had been in favor of staying where they were. Even Sigrun, who was usually the first person trying to convince the crew to move on. 

“Hey, Kitten, get out of the tree!”, the captain suddenly shouted across their current camping-spot, throwing Mikkel out of his thoughts. A dumb name, huh?

Tuuri and Emil had been attempting to give the kid a bath. Unsuccessfully, it seemed. The only thing wet was the Swede´s hair and instead of in the tub, the little girl was sitting on a branch just out of reach of the two smallest crewmembers and hissed. Maybe Misse´s mother had had a point with calling her daughter Kitty. It had rained the entire day before, so the kid had escaped her fate so far. She appeared to be escaping for a little while longer.

Mikkel heard Emil murmur something that was certainly not too nice while he was trying to dry himself with a small towel. Tuuri´s voice started to get the chirpy tone it had whenever she tried to persuade Lalli into sparing a cookie for her. Mikkel couldn´t make out what she was saying, she seemed to be switching between languages to see what worked best. From the look of it, none of it did. At least it succeeded in distracting the kid long enough for Reynir to sneak up from behind and grab her out of the tree.   
The following battle was quite entertaining to watch. After a while, baiting Misse with the good smell of Emil´s shampoo worked, but the girl would grab onto Reynir´s braid and not let go for the entire bath. 

“Give the kid a break, she nearly drowned two days ago!”, Sigrun shouted and leaned back on her chair with a pleased smile, enjoying the show. She had been offering such and similarly helpful advice throughout the entire bathing-shenanigans. The younglings hadn´t exactly appreciated it. Mikkel had known what was good for him and not said a word.

After the deed was finally done, the sun had fully gone down. Emil, Reynir, Tuuri and Misse were all sitting around the small fireplace with towels on their heads and facial expressions as if they had just won a very long, very hard war. Instead of the girl´s ragged old clothes, she was now wearing a spare shirt of Tuuri and spare pants of Emil held together with a belt. In her hands, that were hidden under her much too long sleeves, she was holding a bowl of warm tuna. It had become apparent that Misse loved tuna on the days before, so it was her reward for daring to take a bath. Almost exactly upon finishing with her last bite she fell asleep, tipping over and landing on Reynir.

“I think that´s our cue to go to bed”, Sigrun whispered with a little smile. Nobody objected.

On the next morning, they found Misse sleeping while holding onto Reynir´s braid.


	3. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kitty finds a friend.

Of all the people it could have chosen to open up to (like, for example, one that spoke a language she would probably understand), the Cat-Child chose the Plus One. Just until yesterday, she didn´t let anyone closer to her than an arm´s length, and there she was, happily sitting on Reynir´s lap, wrapped in a blanket and trying to catch snowflakes with her tongue. Maybe it was his hair. No, it definitely was his hair, the kitten was still holding onto it. 

“Looks like you´re good for something after all, braid-guy!” Sigrun friendly-punched his shoulder while walking past. Reynir gave her a smile in response that looked more like he was in pain, as the kid pulled on the braid to show its owner the big snowflake she just caught. 

Sigrun´s right-hand-warrior´s shampoo had completely fluffed up the kid´s now shining red hair. Every streak was of a slightly different length, (probably never saw proper scissors in its life), so the ponytail the Icelander forced it to behave in shared quite a bit of resemblance to the furry tail of a cat. Most of the brown tips had turned out to be dirt, only the fuzz around her face remained in a significantly darker coloring, as well as the furthest down ends of her hair. It brought out the almost unhealthily pale skin of the kid. If the sun was shining, it would probably reflect it. They really needed to make sure the kid would eat enough, maybe that could give her some color back. Easier said than done when the cook´s preferred serving was death in a bowl.

But enough staring at the strange new crew-member. Breakfast was served. If you could call it that. This slime shared more similarities with…

“MIKKEL!!! Did you melt candles into this sludge?” 

“Surely I would never!”, came the answer from within the tank.

“What did he say?”, Emil asked while filling two bowls with the stuff. Looked like the little scout-guy was back.

“That he didn´t.” Sigrun shrugged. As soon as Emil was gone, she inspected the insides of the pot more suspiciously. Looking around, she saw that Tuuri was eating it, while chit-chattering with Reynir about whatever Lalli was doing with a skull in a tree. Or so much she assumed, the pipsqueak´s name dropped a couple of times. The Icelander and the cat-child were already done. None of them seemed to be dropping dead on the spot, so she concluded the food would at least not kill her. She still made sure Mikkel would see how much she despised it when he came outside. Unfortunately, the Dane didn´t react at all. Oh well…

“Oy, little puffy-hair!”

“That´s… me?”, Tuuri squeaked like a startled mouse.

“Call the elderly folks and let them know that we´re heading way far out today! Got to keep them in the loop too.”

“Right away!”

Looked like they were going to be back on the road. Good, she was just starting to get a little jumpy. In the Silent World it was better to not stay in one place for longer than necessary. And the weather was perfect, awesome and great! Snowfall, ideal for safe travels. It would be a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Sigrun is fun. I can come up with dumb nicknames for everyone.


	4. Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kitty is scared and Reynir questions his lifechoices.

This day was terrible! It had snowed so much that they had to turn back, Mikkel had decided to wash Lalli´s clothing that was full of beast-blood directly next to him, and then after a really venturesome driving maneuver everything spilled on him. He would die. Mikkel assured him he wouldn´t, but he added “to the best of my knowledge” afterwards. And now Reynir was scared, miserable, wet, cold, possibly on the verge of dying and Lalli just fell unconscious in the back of the tank, which was frankly even more worrying. 

At least Kisa had let go of his hair by now. Her name was Kisa, right? Or something Danish… He had forgotten what Kisa meant in Danish. But it seemed to be similar enough, the little girl responded to it when he called her that name. He tried not to think about the reason she let go. It was his braid being soaked in a mixture of dirt, water and troll-goo, which smelled disgusting and was probably fatal. 

The little girl had jumped closer to Mikkel just in time to not get hit with the troll-water, unlike the much less lucky Emil and himself. Now she was sitting on one of the bunks and curiously watched Mikkel and the Swede trying to patch up Lalli. 

The tank was moving again. The scout had given Tuuri a description of a place to stay before fainting. Unfortunately, the way there seemed to go right through the scary tunnel with the flesh-blobs.

As soon as they went in, Kisa got nervous. Like a small animal, on all fours, she jumped back to Reynir and grabbed his arm. All of her hair suddenly sticked out as if she just got an electric shock, and she hissed again. Was she scared of the dark? No, probably she thought all the blobs were still alive.

“Don´t worry Kisa, Lalli checked those, they are dead.” He wriggled his arm out of the child´s grip and put it around her to signal that she was safe. 

“I know, it´s really scary!”, he whispered. “But the adults will protect you!”

As Tuuri drove them out of the tunnel, the girl stopped hissing. Her hair went back to normal. Good, looked like it really just were the weird flesh-blobs. It was funny, he had been scared too, but somehow, reassuring Kisa made him bolder. Like he had to be brave to protect her. He knew that was silly, he would be absolutely helpless in any sort of battle-situation. Most likely Kisa would know more about what to do than he. But he still felt that way.

After a while, the girl started yawning. Not soon after, she fell asleep leaning on him while he was stroking her fluffy cat-hair. Mikkel, who was done taking care of Lalli, helped Reynir put a blanket around the curled-up child. The sound she made when snuggling into it almost sounded like she was purring. The medic also finally handed Reynir a towel for his hair.

“You´re not about to die. I am one hundred percent sure of it”, Mikkel told him in his most authoritative voice. “The virus can´t survive for long without a host. And the soap killed everything that was left.”  
This time Reynir believed him.

“We´ll be there in an hour or two!”, Tuuri announced from the driving seat.


	5. Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew gets ambushed by a troll.

“Fine. You protect the helpless ones while we check it out.” Sigrun pointed at Emil, before starting to walk towards the building with Mikkel.

“Protect the helpless ones?” Tuuri mimicked quotation marks with her hands and chuckled. “Oh, what a noble task…”

“Shut up… You should rather thank me, you know.” 

Tuuri pretended to bow in front of the Swede. “Thank you, oh hero, for keeping us poor damsels in distress safe.”

Tuuri saw with satisfaction that their “brave guardian” was grinning. Even Kisu, now awake again, smiled. Though most likely just because she had heard the others laugh, not because she had understood what they were talking about.  
The child was standing between Tuuri and Reynir, holding one of each of their hands and drawing wiggly lines in the snow with her foot. She was wearing (or drowning in) Lalli´s boots. He wouldn´t need them for the rest of today. Probably not for longer. Tuuri hoped he would wake up soon. She felt bad for yelling at him and really wanted to apologize.

Only Reynir didn´t laugh at the joke. Which was fair, they had been talking Swedish, but that didn´t excuse the utterly terrified look on the Icelanders face. Tuuri fixated the window where he had supposedly seen movement. But there was nothing. 

“Are you ok…?”, she asked in Icelandic.

At that moment, Sigrun looked out of the door and signaled that they didn´t find anything. But Reynir still pointed at the window with a face as if he had seen a ghost. Sigrun gestured him to come over and show her where. Reynir didn´t look like he wanted to do that. But apparently Kisu had seen the sign and took the matter into her own hands. The kid let go of Tuuri and started to walk towards the building, dragging poor Reynir with her.

“Should we really let the cat-girl go with him?”, Emil asked out of the corner of his mouth while they watched the bizarre sight of a gigantic redhead and a tiny redhead slowly making their way over a snow-clad site while an impatient redhead was waiting for them.

“Lalli said there is nothing dangerous here. And even if, she´s immune. And can run fast. She´ll be fine.” Tuuri wasn´t about to doubt her cousin again. He was always right. When he said the place was safe, it was safe.

“Ok then…”

***

“Kisa wait! We shouldn´t go there, I´m not immune!”, Reynir whispered. The girl looked at him and resolutely shook her head. Then she started walking faster (which was still not “fast”, since her oversized shoes hindered her quite a bit).

“You… understood me?” He asked. Kisa looked at him in confusion and cocked her head. “You probably just saw that I´m scared…”, Reynir answered for her. “Thank you, but I don´t think this is the right moment to be brave.” The kid didn´t react. Walking required all of her concentration.

When they finally reached the building, Kisa immediately started sniffing it. Was there a weird smell? He sniffed too… until he saw Sigrun giving him a look as if she was asking him whether he just lost his mind. Right, breathing the virus could kill him. And he was here to show the others the thing that moved. 

Wait, how did Sigrun and Mikkel not see it? One of them was standing right between them. Or floating… He wasn´t sure.

“… I-I´m sorry. It´s just… ghosts?”

Some Danish or Norwegian was spoken. Now Mikkel too seemed to assume Reynir had gone insane.

The Dane sighed. “Do the “ghosts” appear hostile?”

“Uh… no? They just kinda sit there and flicker a little.”

More Danish or Norwegian. Mikkel and Sigrun started to inspect the room. It looked like an old hospital. Lots of dead people. Maybe Kisa shouldn´t see this. But right now the girl´s focus was on the wall anyway. Wait, could she…?

“Do you see them? You don´t think they look dangerous, do you?”

A perplexed “Mju?” was all the kid responded. He really should start teaching her Icelandic…

***

Meanwhile back at the tank, Tuuri and Emil were starting to get bored. Watching one of their superiors walk by a window every now and then wasn´t exactly the most interesting pass of time. Tuuri let her eyes wander over the pompous building and the statue in the middle of its courtyard again.

“Do you think this place was like a castle? You know, where a king or a queen lived?”

Emil followed her view to the statue. “No. Kings and queens lived like… ages ago. They didn´t have those anymore in the old world. I learned that in school.”

Tuuri giggled. “Interesting school you had, then. Of course kings and queens still existed in the old world. Sweden for example had a royal family. Not sure about Denmark, we didn´t have a lot of Danish records in Keuruu.”

“I´m pretty sure I would know it if my country used to have a royal family.”

“Come on Emil, I´m a skald. Knowing about history is my job. Would I lie to you?”

Emil seemed to seriously consider it. But before he could answer, Tuuri noticed that the others were on their way back. Reynir was carrying Kisu on his shoulders. But the girl was looking… scared? Her eyes were wide open and she clutched Reynir´s head with her arms. Her hair looked like it had been electrocuted, but maybe Tuuri was imagining that.

Sigrun noticed it and immediately went into what Tuuri sometimes called “Defense-mode”. Mikkel made the Icelander put on his mask. Quickly Tuuri followed suit and went into the tank.

But the three others kept walking. Maybe it was false alarm…

At that moment a small troll jumped out of nowhere and right towards Reynir. Then everything seemed to go faster. Sigrun jumped in and the thing sunk its teeth in her arm. She fell on her back and started hitting it with the other end of her rifle. Mikkel grabbed Reynir and pushed him away, so fast that Kisu lost her balance and fell down in the snow with a panicked cry, right next to where Sigrun had dropped down. 

“Kisa!”, was all Reynir could say before Mikkel pushed him into the door of the tank.

“Get it! Don´t let it hide again!”, Sigrun barked to no specific person, her face wreathing in pain. Emil started shooting vaguely into the direction where the troll had disappeared under the snow. A sobbing Kisu tried to crawl away. Sigrun grabbed her foot and pulled her back.

“Oh no, Kitten, you stay right here where I can make sure it doesn´t get you! Now where did the stupid critter go!?” The girl pointed in a direction with a shivering hand, while covering her head with the other.

“Hold on!” This was Mikkel, looking at Reynir´s arm. The fabric on his sleeve was torn. 

Oh no., Tuuri thought. The medic inspected the Icelanders skin with a trained look. There, a small scratch on his upper arm. The skin had turned red at the spot.

“Hm, alright”, the Dane murmured and quickly closed the tanks door. Suddenly it was silent. A muffled order by Sigrun every now and then was the only thing that pierced through the tank´s walls.

“… Am I alright?”, Reynir asked with a shaking voice.

“I… don´t know”, was all Tuuri could answer.


	6. Part 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theories about the Cat-Child are formed.

On the same evening, after the troll was finally caught, the crew was getting ready to have dinner. Tuuri found Reynir and Kisu sitting under the table in the office, both looking absolutely miserable.

“Heyyy… Mikkel said that you won´t die. Come on, lighten up!” 

If anything, Reynir reacted to this by becoming even more miserable.

“But I was much too close to dying, twice today! What if things continue like this? I might not be that lucky anymore next time.” 

Twice? Oh yeah, the wash-water-incident.

“And Kisa fell down in the cold snow and hurt her arm! And nearly got attacked by a troll!” The girl, who was lying curled up on the Icelander´s lap, snuffled affirmatively. Tuuri pondered whether she should be worried that these two might be fusing together soon, if Reynir now even took it upon himself to answer for her.

Then he started talking more muted. “And it was all my fault because I let her go. I brought her in danger. And I can´t even apologize because she doesn´t speak my language!”

Ah, so that was it. Tuuri sighed. “It wasn´t anybody´s fault. You were just scared and surprised when Mikkel tried to get you out of the situation. And look, in the end nothing bad happened. There is just a little bruise on Kisa´s arm. And if it makes you feel better, we can ask Mikkel to translate your apology.”

Reynir let out a slight smile. “Yeah, I think that would make me feel better. And thank you for saying that… But I know-“

“Let me stop you right there.” Tuuri had had enough. “Should I help you to wash your hair? I think you´ll see things in a different light when your head doesn´t stink like something died in it anymore.”

Reynir snuffled too, then nodded. Seriously, it was like talking to a toddler… two toddlers.

“We´re going outside!”, she let the others know, while towing Reynir out of the door. He was now holding Kisu extra-tight, as if to make sure he wouldn´t drop her again.

“Hm-hm”, was all Mikkel answered while stirring in the dinner-pot. The rest of the crew was too busy inspecting their wounds. Emil had a pretty bad-looking bruise on his leg. Tuuri wondered how that happened.

***

As soon as Kisu spotted the tub, she started fidgeting in Reynir´s arms.

“Don´t worry, not for you”, the Icelander tried to calm her.

About five minutes later, he was lying on a blanket on the snow-free ground around the tank (Sigrun had made them remove all the snow five meters around it so nothing would ambush them again) and held his now open hair into the water. Kisu sat on the other end of the tub lurking over its edge and putting a finger in it every now and then, followed by an angry “Mrii!” because the water was so cold.  
Reynir´s hair alone took pretty much the entire space in the tub. Tuuri was seriously impressed.

“You know, Kisa even warned me that something was coming”, the Icelander began once again. Slowly but surely, Tuuri started to get annoyed.

“Oh, come on Reynir… Wait. What do you mean with she “warned you”?”

“She was hissing and her hair got all fluffy. Even before the troll jumped out. She did that before, when we were in the tunnel with the flesh-blobs. Maybe that was when the thing started following us. Do you think she can sense trolls?”

Tuuri looked at him skeptically, though she had to admit that Kisu had seemed scared even before the troll attacked.

“Maybe she just did see it. I mean, she grew up in the silent world as far as we know, it´s probably quite necessary for survival to be able to spot critters early. And the tunnel just was really scary.”

“Hm, yeah that makes sense. But she also was able to show Sigrun where it went.”

“Again, she probably saw it.” Where did the shampoo go? Tuuri only found Emil´s in the bag where it usually was, and she was sure the Swede would kill her if she sunk that into Reynir´s hair-masses.

“And what about the odd ghost things in the building? I think she could see them too. And nobody else could.”

“Oh, was that the movement you meant?”

“Uh-huh. Do you think your cousin knows what they were? Can you ask him when he wakes up?”

Maybe the Icelander was a mage after all. Lalli had been talking about some spirits around the palace before he fell asleep.

“Mmh, Lalli mentioned seeing something like that earlier. I doubt he´d know, he calls things “weird” when he has no clue.”

“Well, that´s a pity.”

Oh, there the shampoo was. It fell into the washing pan where Mikkel usually did the dishes in.  
For a while Reynir just stared to the sky. Kisu took a little snow and put it into the water to watch it melt.

“I think Kisa is a mage!”, he suddenly exclaimed. Well, there it was. Tuuri had half expected this to come next.

“Reynir, mages are rare. And Kisa is Danish, there are no Danish mages. They don´t believe in the gods.”

“Our Danes don´t! I mean the ones that live in Bornholm. But Kisa grew up here. Maybe she does believe in something.”

“Huh.” Tuuri hadn´t thought of that. She looked at the little girl, who was just about to drop another handful of snow into the water. 

“Mju?” Kisu looked up.

“You know, we should really teach her how to speak.”


	7. Part 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikkel washes things and Kitty covers things in mud.

“I just have zero faith in your battling skills”. How was Mikkel supposed to not take this personally? Sure, he was no professional troll-hunter or cleanser, but unlike other people he was still in one piece. And had a soldier-training too, as well as years of field-experience. But still Sigrun preferred to take the injured Nineteenyearold with her instead of him, on top of herself being wounded too. The captain´s recklessness would get someone killed at some point, he knew it. He threw the laundry into the tub as angrily as he allowed himself to be and started working. If he already had to stay behind, he wouldn´t let that time go to waste.

Splat! Misse slipped on the tank´s doorstep and fell headfirst into the mud around it. Yesterday’s snow had melted quite a bit overnight and turned the entire courtyard into a puddle.  
Mikkel looked up from his chores. The child pushed herself up from lying flat on the ground and spit out a bit of dirty water. They shared a look, both equally irritated that this had just happened. For a while, nobody said anything.

After a few seconds, the Dane found his voice again. “Are you alright? Have you hurt yourself?”

The girl looked down at her clothes, now covered in mud. She shook her head. “Not hurt.”

Mikkel took a wet towel out of the tub in front of him and cleaned her hands and face. She made a hissing sound but let him proceed.

“Wait here for a bit, I´ll give you dry clothes once I´m done with this.”

As soon as Mikkel concentrated on his work again, Misse started playing in the dirt. He rolled his eyes. What did he expect?

“Where have you left your other half?”, he asked, demonstratively not looking at the child who had just comfortably seated herself and her formally white pants into the dirty water.  
Right as he said that, Reynir was already peeking his head out of the door.

“Hey Mikkel… Oh, Kisa, there you a-aaaaah.”

The girl happily waved at him with her brown hands. 

“I´ll handle this”, Mikkel said, nodding in the direction of the content child. “Just don´t let her inside like that.”

“Oh, uhm, ok… So, what I came here to ask is… We, I mean I, Tuuri is working…”

“Yes?”

“I´m attempting to teach Kisa Icelandic, but I think she doesn´t get what I want from her. She understands you, sort of, so could you maybe tell her that this is what I´m trying to do here?”

Mikkel paused his chores again. “This is… actually a really good idea.”

Reynir smiled. “Really?”

“Yes, of course. We´re planning on taking her home with us, so learning to communicate verbally is definitely useful. Especially with you, since you´re the one she trusts the most.”

The Dane looked at the child again. “Misse?”

She looked up. “Mikkel?”, she stammered after thinking for a bit.  
This was the first time she had said anyone´s name. Mikkel was flattered that it was his.

“Yes, I am Mikkel. Do you know who this is too?” He pointed at the Icelander.

The girl nodded. “Kisa.”

A slightly embarrassed “Oh”, was all Reynir said to this. Mikkel couldn´t stop himself from chuckling a little.

“Hm, not quite. His name is Reynir. He calls you Kisa sometimes.”

“Oh, yes. Rey-nir.” The Icelanders name sounded funny in the girl´s accent.

“Have you noticed that he speaks different than you?”

It took Misse a while until she had deciphered that sentence. Then she nodded again.

“He would like to teach you his language. Then you can talk to each other. Does that sound good?”

Ok, this was too much. The girl didn´t seem to be able to follow what he said anymore. How could he phrase it simpler?

“He wants to show you the words, so you can talk to him.”

A glimpse of understanding appeared in Misse´s eyes.

“Do you want to learn that?”

The girl smiled and got up. “Yes!”

“Wait! First we´ll wash you.”


	8. Part 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The non-immune-club plus Kisa is very bored and makes bad choices because of it.

“Hold on! You are breaking the rules if you go! You can´t leave two non-immune people alone in the field without an immune person around for protection!”

Tuuri was sure she had gotten him. Nobody cared so much about the rules and the protocol as Mikkel. Either he would take her (and Reynir and Kisu too for all she cared) with him to check out Kastellet fort, or they all would stay home. Anyhow, it was her discovery with the possible cure, so she had the absolute right to look into it in her opinion.

Success! The Dane made a surprised face and thought for a moment. But then his expression went back to the usual deadpan, as he gestured first towards the sleeping Lalli, afterwards to Kisu, who was crawling around on the ground following and carefully watching a spider. (Her motivation for learning Icelandic had faded for the day after “Hello” and “goodbye”.)

“Guard number one, guard number two. Keep each other entertained during my absence.”

He smugly smiled at Tuuri and left. She couldn´t find any words to express her anger at being outsmarted. She looked at Reynir to find agreement, without luck.

“Come on”, Reynir said in an encouraging tone of voice. “We´ll find something better to do- ew, Kisa, stop that!”

The little girl had now caught the spider alive and was carefully holding it between two fingers. More precisely, she was holding it in Reynir´s face to show off her amazing catch. The poor thing wriggled with its legs, while the Icelander moved as closely to the wall and as far away from the child´s hand as he could. 

Tuuri gave a disappointed smile. “Well ok, I guess we won´t get bored with Kisa around…” 

At least for now she would be busy saving Reynir from Kisu´s prey.

***

So far they had been playing tic-tac-toe, cards, and taught Kisa the names of the cards. Even though Tuuri had gone about the situation with a sort of huffy enthusiasm that it would be a good day at first, she currently looked like the personification of boredom in the way she was leaning on the table. Kisa even more so, lying flat on her back to their feet. She was reading out the numbers on a couple of playing cards she had stolen from the table over and over in a completely random order. Reynir and Tuuri had just continued playing anyway. Kisa liked the red cards a lot and had preferentially taken those, so whenever heart or diamond was the trump color in their game, it was over very quickly.

After Tuuri had convinced the girl to release the spider outside, there hadn´t been anything too exciting happening. Reynir himself was actually really happy that this day had so far been completely event-less, but knew better than to say this out loud, if he wanted to keep the respect of the two girls. Still, he needed to do something to lighten the mood. 

In that moment, the radio came to his rescue by sounding out some interference. Kisa covered her ears and sticked out her tongue in displeasure, Tuuri quickly turned it off.

“The radio is broken, huh?”, Reynir halfheartedly started a conversation.

Tuuri sighed. “No, it works. Nobody´s answering is all. I´m supposed to get us connected with the crew back at the home base.”

“Ah.” 

“I don´t think they´re there yet, so it´s pointless.”

With that, silence fell over them again. The Icelander distributed the cards once more. A tiny hand stole one of the jokers that were lying on the corner of the table. After a while, the cards flew against the wall and Kisa started wandering around like she was trapped in a cage. Maybe they should take her for a walk or something. But Mikkel had told them to stay inside.

“You knooow”, Tuuri suddenly declared. “if you really wanted to follow Mikkel, being a bit unruly like that, I wouldn´t be able to stop you `cus I´m tiny. Neither would Kisa. (But I´d try my best so I´d follow you.)” She only whispered that last part.

“No thanks, I´m good. I´ve seen enough neat things for now.” As cool and important as Kastellet fort probably was, Reynir did enjoy living, and wasn´t exactly keen on jeopardizing his life for a sightseeing-tour in the Silent World if he could avoid it. Especially not alone.

Tuuri reacted to this more disappointed than he expected.  
Suddenly the penny dropped. _She_ wanted an excuse to follow Mikkel _with_ him, she wasn´t really asking whether he wanted to go by himself. Maybe, with friends… it was worth it.

“… Oh. Yeah, maybe I do want to follow Mikkel.”

The Finn´s face lit up, just to go back to the bored, disappointed state right after.

“Ah, actually, no. Forget it. I bet he´ll still get mad at both of us, no matter whose idea it was to go outside. We´d need a good reason for it.”

“Okay?” Reynir really didn´t want Tuuri to be sad. 

While he was thinking, an angry “Mju!” cut through the silence, followed by a “Mjurr!” once all eyes were on the little girl. Kisa demanded attention.

“You know, I think Kisa should really move her legs soon, or she will annoy us for the rest of the day”, Reynir put his thought from earlier into words.

“Yeah… And she´s really good at detecting trolls, Mikkel should have taken her with him, she could have helped him. I bet she could protect us.”

“Actually it puts him in danger that he left her with us, even though this spot is completely safe and where he is going probably isn´t.”

Reynir and Tuuri looked at each other. Both started smiling. Tuuri enthusiastically, the Icelander a bit unsure. But the Finn´s happiness was catching. There they had their reason. Tuuri opened the tanks door full of verve and showed the other two the way outside with a bow.

“Come on Kisa, we´re going for a walk!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In a German comedy book I read, it´s called “Die Känguru Chroniken”( = the kangaroo chronicles) by Marc-Uwe Kling, a word for exactly that situation Tuuri is in at the beginning of this chapter is proposed. The word is “ratzupaltuf” (complete fantasy-word, it doesn´t mean anything), and its definition “you just noticed that someone outsmarted you”. It is surprisingly useful on many occasions and has fully entered my vocabulary. A shame I couldn´t really use it here. I wish official words for this would exist in other languages. Or do any of you know some?


	9. Part 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikkel regrets his life-choices, Emil and Kitty are worried and Reynir and Tuuri dream of a better future.

He would never not be a babysitter. Not only did Reynir, Tuuri and Misse follow him against his strict orders under some dumb excuse along the lines of Misse being able to “sense trolls” (“Not sensing, seeing!”, as Tuuri phrased it), but then they had spent the entire detour bothering him. Especially Reynir, who had gotten scared at the walls again. But in the end, Mikkel couldn´t really blame him, that entire maneuver had “Tuuri” written all over it, she probably just didn´t want to go alone.

At least he got what he came for, some of the test cures and on them the address of the hospital where they were developed. Now all they had to do was get home before Sigrun… 

“…Uh.”

The surprised captain who was balancing some books on her head (and had definitely not been careful with her injured arm as he had advised) looked at him… and Tuuri and Reynir and Misse behind him. Mikkel prepared for the worst.

“Mutiny.” She practically spit that word out.

Mikkel spent the rest of the way back explaining himself and his intentions that were definitely not motivated by wanting to overthrow Sigrun. She threatened to leave him behind in a ditch regardless, but luckily refrained from it because her arm still needed medical attention.

***

Their employers at the home base had finally answered the radio calls. Most of the crew was happily talking to them right now. But Emil couldn´t concentrate. He and the Cat-girl were both cowering next to Tuuri´s bunk under which her cousin had been sleeping completely motionless for… two days now? Emil was pretty sure that this wasn´t normal. And no one else except for him and the kid seemed to care. And she had only realized five minutes ago that something was wrong!   
Anyway, the two of them were literally the people the least qualified to help (Well, maybe the stupid Icelander would be even more useless at the moment). 

Tuuri had said that Lalli was somewhat sick, and just needed to rest up. But two days! That was a long time to be unconscious. Emil touched Lalli´s cheek and forehead to check whether they were warm. Hm no, not really. At least he didn´t seem to have a fever. But he still wouldn´t wake up. 

“Hm”, he said to express his concern and shared a look with the Cat-girl, who was looking equally unhappy.

“Hm”, she repeated and pouted. 

The kid poked Lalli´s face with her finger. Now if Lalli had been okay, he would have at least tried to bite her for this. But Emil´s friend didn´t react at all. The Swede was starting to get seriously worried.

“Come ooon. Wake up already”, he murmured.

“Mrr”, the Cat-girl assented. Funny, it was the same sound Lalli sometimes made when he was really annoyed by something. Though, out of the mouth of the little girl, it sounded more like a sad purr. 

Exited chatter in a mixture of Swedish and Icelandic came from the other room.

“Really? Nobody else cares even a little bit?”, he shouted into the conversation. Everyone ignored him.

“Looks like it´s up to us, then.” Emil was absolutely ready to care for Lalli alone if he had to… Or with the Cat-girl, if she was willing to help. He would not leave this spot until Lalli would wake up. 

“EMIL! C´mere, we´re making a detour, gotta fill you in! The pipsqueak won´t run away if you don´t look for a few minutes!”

Or at least not until Sigrun called. Alright, he didn´t want to end up on the captain´s new mutineer-list. But still, leaving Lalli completely alone again (like Tuuri and Reynir did earlier!) didn´t feel like a good idea. He glanced at the kid who was still sitting on the ground. He pointed his finger at her, then to Lalli. 

“You. Look after him for me until I´m back, okay?”

Her eyes followed where Emil´s finger was pointing. They rested on the scout´s sleeping face for a bit, then she looked back at the Swede.

“Mju!”, she said.

Good enough. Emil decided to interpret this as that she understood him. He nodded in her direction, then went into the main room to the others.

***

Dinner was served. Reynir was keeping Tuuri company in the tanks front, where she planned out the new route to take. Kisa was eating in the back of the tank with Emil and the sleeping scout today. For some reason not even the temptation of warm tuna could make her leave Lalli´s side. Well, she was probably just worried about him. Reynir understood that, he was too, but Emil would just snap at the Icelander if he dared to come closer, so he stayed away.

He looked at Tuuri who was eagerly drawing lines on the map. The crew would check out the place at the address on the thing Mikkel found. Tuuri believed it could be the starting point for an actually working cure. That was neat, sure, but Reynir couldn´t help but wish they were already on their way home. Those ghosts in Kastellet fort looked very much not friendly. And then there was his vision…

“Just think about all the people we might be saving! We´ll be heroes!”, Tuuri broke him out of his thoughts. “You too, you´re one of us now.”

Once again Reynir couldn´t help but be infected by her joy. Yes, heroes. That would be nice, probably.

“And then think of us! If there was a cure, non-immune people like we are could just go anywhere they wanted, without having to worry. And no scaredy-cat-family-members can hold us back. I can go out into the world and you can finally look for those palm trees you want to see so badly.”

“You´re right, that does sound good. Actually, it sounds really good.” He could go away from Iceland, or join the army and work together with his siblings. Or actually travel! His parents could even come too, the cure would work for them just as well. Or he could go with some of his friends back home.

“Just… the palm trees might be a bit unrealistic… Mikkel said they grow really, _really_ far south.”

Tuuri shrugged. “There are other nice things to see.”

“I suppose… Is Keuruu a nice place?”

“Uh… Kinda boring. I guess if you enjoy looking at city walls.”

“Hm.”

Reynir looked out the front window. A fog had started to form when the sun went down. Now everything was covered in white clouds and sprinkled with red light. It was actually kind of pretty.   
Except for those floating black smoke-figures in the distance. 

“Remember this.”

The dog´s voice was echoing in his head. Reynir felt like he was living through his dream again. 

“We need to… go.”


	10. Part 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tank is under attack!

“What?”

“Remember those spirits? At the place? Well they´re here now and I dreamt that they were going to kill us and you need to drive us away from here! To somewhere else!”

Tuuri looked confused. “Umm… calm down. First of all, the sun is setting, it´s not like we can go anywhere. But we might relocate tomorrow, so just…” 

Dammit, she said she believed him earlier!

“No no no, not tomorrow! They´re coming to eat us right now!

“We-“

“We´ve got to go now! Tell Sigrun!”

The Finn looked like she was questioning his sanity, but at least she did say something to the captain. But Tuuri didn´t seem to have gotten the urgency of the problem across. If Reynir interpreted Sigrun´s expression correctly, there was little hope she would listen.

“Sorry. Try to get them off your mind, they´re really probably not dangerous. Sigrun said we´re not going, no matter what.”

He had been hoping she wouldn´t say that. If only Lalli was awake. Or Kisa could talk. If there were three of them, Sigrun would have to pay attention. But actually, Kisa looked completely calm. A bit bewildered that he was panicking, if anything. Maybe it really was just a dream- No! It was more, the dog had been there and he only came in his magic-dreams. Maybe Tuuri had just been right and the girl wasn´t a mage. Yes, that had to be it. Reynir wouldn´t sit here and wait for all of them to die.

“Drive anyway, who cares what Sigrun says!?” He tried to pull Tuuri to the driver’s seat. “You´re fine with breaking orders!”

Now Tuuri looked angry. She started to fight back.

“Quit that! I think you should go to bed.”

They were doomed. Reynir didn´t know what to do, couldn´t do anything. If only he could drive a car.

Suddenly some alarmed screams in Swedish came from the back of the tank, accompanied by choking sounds coming from Lalli. They were here. But for some reason Kisa still didn´t seem scared. At least not because of the ghosts.   
She came running into the office and grabbed Mikkel´s hand, dragging him to help Lalli. Before the two of them had reached him though, the scout started to let out a deafening screech. For a moment everyone was startled.

Sigrun was the first to break out of it and yelled something, but stopped mid-sentence with a puzzled look. The next moment, she and Mikkel fell to the ground and fainted.

Kisa was standing between the two superiors, staring at them as if she didn´t understand the world anymore. Then her gaze wandered upwards. Her eyes became big in horror, her hair began to fluff up like she had touched a plug socket and she pointed at a spot on the ceiling. 

“Mi- MriiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!”

Tuuri and Reynir looked at where the girl´s finger was aiming. What was up there looked like a troll, or not… just it´s shadow? But still way too real. It´s maw was open, as if it was sucking life and air itself out of the tank and its inhabitants. The spider-like legs extended to the walls and seemingly flowed down like some deadly rills. They ended in long, skinny fingers. Two of these hands were holding the faces of Sigrun and Mikkel like the bars of a cage. The other arms creeped over the floor, searching for prey. Lalli, who was still screaming as if someone had stabbed him, was caught in one of the arms´ shadow-cages too. Kisa tried to sidestep the other limbs´ grab. 

Finally Tuuri seemed to realize the danger of the situation. She ran to the driver´s seat with a scared “Eee! We´re all going to die!” and stepped on the gas pedal. 

The wheels started turning so fast that the tank lurched for a while; before it started moving with greater speed then Reynir had thought it was capable of. He fell to his knees. He couldn´t tell whether because of the shaking car or the troll-ghost. 

But it was too late. They wouldn´t be able to escape anyway. The threat was already inside.

Kisa´s “Mriiih!” ceased. Her eyes rolled upwards and she fell down in the middle of the others. The spider-fingers started crawling over her face.

Reynir had to do something. He was a mage. There had to be something he could do. He had to stop being frozen in fear now! He didn´t know any spells, but he just had to try. Giving up wouldn´t get him anywhere.

“G-go away! Please go away! How-”

He had probably fainted too, because the next time he opened his eyes he was in his dreamplace. Or some dark caricature of it. The grass on the hill was dry and grey, the sheep were fleeing and instead of sunshine a gigantic black cloud was darkening the sky. Or so he thought. When he looked up the cloud turned out to be a much larger, puffed up version of the ghost-troll.

At least the dog was at his side to help him fight off the intruder. But he couldn´t do much more than growl at it. Reynir had to continue his attempt at a spell.

“How can I make you go away?!”

A pale rune appeared under Reynir´s feet, and some kind of shield formed around him. But it didn´t look strong. If that was the extent of his abilities, he wouldn´t save anyone. 

“I need help!”

It was just a whisper. But something had heard it. A small figure appeared among the running sheep. Instead of away, it was running towards him. It was the small orange and white cat with the heart-shape on its head. He had noticed it before. It was usually sleeping on a fence in his dreamplace when he´d wake up there. The Icelander had never really paid attention to it; he had just assumed it was a part of the place, like the sheep. No real being, just a prop. But now it looked fierce, and brave, and the danger right in the eye. With its somehow very familiar, big, blue eyes.   
The little cat stepped into Reynir´s shield without being hindered. 

The ghost started to attack. He shot his dark arms down like arrows and hit the shield. It made sounds like cracking glass upon impact. The spider-fingers on the limbs´ ends started to crawl around again, this time searching for a weak spot to get into the shield. They would find one, no doubt. Reynir and the dog made themselves as small as possible. The Icelander put his arms around his dream-friend in a last effort to protect him. So this was the end.

But the little cat still focused on the enemy. For a short time it looked back at Reynir, as if it was saying "Don´t be scared. I know what to do."

It inhaled and let out a monstrous yell that threw the punching and creeping arms off of the shield and a few meters away. It was imitating one word, in the same tone of voice as the Icelander had said it.

“HELP!”

It was a child´s voice, sounding like it was not used to talking. But it made his prayer heard. The next thing Reynir knew a large owl flew over his head and started attacking the shadow.


	11. Part 11 (Interlude)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The foundling gets an official name... or several.

They had really all escaped! From the… “ghosts”? Well, probably not spirits, these ones had definitely been attacking.  
There had been some complications on the way to this safe spot that none of the fighting-members of the team really wished to talk about, so Tuuri figured that they probably hadn´t ended all that glorious. At least no one had gotten severely hurt.  
She had been a bit worried about Reynir though, who had stayed unconscious for longer than everyone else, but the Icelander woke up grinning with a loud “Onni saved us! And Kisa! I was right, Kisa is a mage!”  


Tuuri had decided to not argue with him about that again. Right now they were in a nice forest with a little snow and the sun was shining. Life was good again.

***

Mikkel was cooking breakfast while Sigrun made every effort to annoy him. She wasn´t even trying to hide how much fun she was having.

“You are probably immune to your poisonous food!”

“Perhaps.”

“Maybe we should hire a food-tester for the safety of the rest of us. Any volunteers?”  
She looked at the youngsters who were sitting on the tank´s wheels. Those of them who understood Sigrun were suddenly very busy looking at the trees or the ground. The captain grinned smugly. Mikkel rolled his eyes.

“I vote for the two extras. They still need official jobs.”

Reynir leaned in closer to Tuuri.  
“I have the weird feeling that Sigrun is talking about me and I´m about to get the short end of the stick. Could that be?”

Mikkel could see Tuuri wasn´t sure whether she should give up the benefit of the Icelander not understanding what was going on. Before she could answer though, Emil joined into the food-discussion that was going on.  
“Don´t choose the Cat-girl, she likes the sludge!”

“Good point, the Braid-guy then. Tuuri, tell him of his luck!”

Mikkel suddenly had the indistinct urge to save Reynir from Sigrun and the others shamelessly taking advantage of the language barrier. He had to change the subject.  
“Emil, her name isn´t “Cat-girl”.”

The Swede looked lost.

“He said Kitten isn´t called Cat-girl”, Sigrun translated.

“Neither is her name “Kitten”. Especially as she is a person with very little experience in verbal communication, we should settle for one name. All those nicknames you are giving her are confusing.”

“A little late for that, isn´t it?”, Sigrun pointed out.

“Well, it is a problem I haven´t been aware of before yesterday. Apparently Reynir´s habit to call her “Kisa” has led her to believe that his name is Kisa. Most likely something similar happened with you.”

“Maybe we should have told her our names before then. “

“I did. I don´t know what you´ve been doing. “ 

The captain opened her mouth to respond, but closed it again before saying anything.  
“So, what do you suggest we call her instead?”, she changed the subject. She didn´t seem to enjoy the conversation anymore. Mikkel´s goal was met.

“I think we should let her herself have a say in that.”

The girl was sitting on Tuuri´s lap today, but was holding onto Reynir´s braid as usual. She looked a little dozy. But when he called her, her expression changed to being attentive.

Mikkel tried to explain the situation. “You have been with us for a while now.”

The child nodded.

“We are a bit confused about your name, or, what to call you.”

She looked around, then back at Mikkel, surprised. She pointed first at him, then the Icelander and Tuuri.  
“You, “Misse”. Rey-nir and grey person “Kisa”. Others no name?”

“No, I mean, one that is your main name. Not just a nickname. You don´t really have one, do you?”

She thought for a bit. “Maybe… not.”

“You already know that I am Mikkel, and this is Reynir. And these are Sigrun, Tuuri, Emil and the one sleeping inside is called Lalli. We all have names to tell who we are. If you want, you can pick one too. But you don´t have to-“

“Yes want to! Want to be like you!”

He chuckled. “Do you have an idea for a name?

The girl concentrated for quite a while. But it appeared she couldn´t really come to a conclusion. In the end, she just shrugged.

“Should we call you Misse?”, Mikkel suggested. “You said that is what your mother used.”

She answered much faster this time.  
“No! Maybe. You can. But was mom´s name. Maybe… different? For new family?”

“So? What is she saying? Her accent sounds like her mouth is full of rocks!” Sigrun was becoming impatient.

“She wants us to come up with a new name for her. Since we are her new family”, Mikkel summed up.

“Aww!”, Tuuri exclaimed. 

“Okay, then we need a really good one!”, Emil decided. He and Tuuri immediately started discussing.

“And now we have to do all the brain-work?” The captain acted angry, but Mikkel saw that she looked a little proud. She joined the discussion quickly and with strong opinions.

“Most of our nicknames so far have been somewhere in the field of “cat”, maybe we should go with that theme!”, suggested Tuuri. 

“And she is brave, and good at surviving. We should include that!”, Reynir assisted as soon as he was filled in. 

The Finn agreed and switched back to Swedish. “So she needs a name that´s cute, but also great. And a bit intimidating too, maybe?”

The girl watched the crew nervously as they decided over her fate. Mikkel stirred in his pot.  
At that moment, Lalli silently walked out of the tank and looked down at the food. 

“Oh, you´re awake.”

The scout sniffed at it and made a displeased face, then he walked away without a word.

“Don´t wander too far, the food is almost ready.”

If Lalli had caught the gist of what he was saying, he didn´t react. Well, not everyone enjoyed conversation. Mikkel started listening to the others again.

“This whole discussion is dumb”, Sigrun currently declared. “We all call her Kitty, let´s just continue with that. We tell her all the words and she decides.”

“What a clever way to shift the “brain-work” back to the child…” Mikkel murmured.

“Ya bet it is! Okay, tell her!”

Mikkel explained the captain’s plan to the girl as best as he could. She seemed intrigued.

“So, different name?”

“Yes, but the word means the same.”

“Same but different.” She smiled. “I like.”

Mikkel nodded to the others.

“And so the real contest begins…” Sigrun, Tuuri and Emil smiled in a way that made him already regret approving of the captain´s idea. At least Reynir didn´t seem to want to be involved in the competition. Or maybe it was just him not understanding Sigrun.

“Pusekatt.” 

“Kisa.” 

“Kisu.” 

“Kissekatt.”

“Missekat.”

“I think we broke her…” Sigrun chipped in. The girl stared at them with her tongue peeking out and a highly concentrated look on her face.

“Let her think. Choosing a name is an important decision to make.”

The child looked up for a moment.  
“Allowed to pick… more than one?”

“… Sure.”

“Allowed to pick… all? I like meaning.”

“If you can remember them…”

“remind me!”

“Alright…” He turned to the others. “She says she likes all of them.”

“That´s dumb, now everything is basically like it was.”, Sigrun crabbed.

“I´m afraid it is. As long as she is happy. Time for lunch.”

Kitty got up and jumped through the snow, cheerfully murmuring her new names.

“Wait, did you just start this conversation just so we stop making fun of your cooking?”, Sigrun demanded to know.

“Surely I would never.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I´m sorry, it´s been a while, I´ve been very busy over the last few months. But I´m hoping to be able to work on this again. So let´s just post the two chapters I already had on the forum now here and then continue with new chapters!


	12. part 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reynir and Kitty make a radio-call.

Everyone was super busy as usual. From what Reynir had gathered, they would continue their mission now that Lalli was awake. Awake and completely back to his grumpy old self. The Icelander was glad that the scout didn´t seem to have been really sick.   
Reynir had volunteered to help Mikkel with his chores again. He supposedly was doing the dishes, but with Kitty running around that proved to be more difficult than expected. She wanted to help, that much was clear. But nearly making him trip wasn´t exactly useful.

“Help!”, she shouted excitedly and reached out to the plates in Reynir´s arms. He dodged her at the last moment. That reminded him…

“Kisa, wait!”

The girl looked at him impatiently, but backed off. 

“Do you remember, last night with the ghosts? You cried for help, and then the ghost was scared. And Onni heard you! How did you do that? Do you know since when you were able to do that?”

Kitty looked confused.  
“You… help… ghost?”

Right, language barrier. Tuuri had decided that words like “troll”, “ghost” and “help” were the most important ones for now and taught them to her this morning, that´s why Kitty had said it. She still couldn´t understand more than that. But she seemed to have made her own interpretation of the question.

“No, help-“ She pointed at the plates. 

Dang it… He would have to wait until they were asleep and find the dream-kitten, if she was there. Back to dirty dishes.   
He immediately tripped over Kitty and almost fell. There was no point, if he didn´t want to destroy everything he had to let her help.

“Forget about it. You win.” 

He handed the child the spoons. At least she couldn´t break those. Kitty started skipping around with a triumphant look in her eyes.

***

When passing the tank´s door, Reynir noticed Mikkel talking on the radio, a very smug look on his face. 

“Can´t remember what was on your mind? That´s quite alright, happens to the best of us.”

He spoke calmly and politely, so politely that the Icelander seriously started wondering who on earth he could be talking to. It couldn´t be one of their employers, Mikkel just asked the person on the other end how their day was. He wouldn´t be asking something so trivial. Then, there was basically only one other option among the people in the Västerströms´ house left. And he would maybe, hopefully, actually be able to help him!

“Kisa, forget about the dishes, we´re making a radio call now!”  
He put down the plates and rushed inside, Kitty just let the spoons fall right where she was standing and followed him.

“Hey! Mikkel!”

“Yes?”

“Is that Tuuri´s brother on the line? Can I talk with him?”

The Dane kept his smug expression.

“Wait your turn, we are currently in the middle of a riveting discussion.”

“No you aren´t! Please, please, please! Let me use the radio! I need to ask things!”

Onni had probably said something, since Mikkel nodded and gave his seat up. Reynir sat down and put the headphones on, Kitty jumped on his lap and immediately yelled a cat-like sound into the microphone. A surprised “Mrr” came from the other end of the line.

“Kisa, no! Don´t yell! Sorry about that. Hi, this is me! Reynir, that is! And Kisa, the one you just heard. Sorry again. Do you remember me? Us?”

“I do, I don´t have a problem with my memory.”

This was… a strange accent. Reynir recognized the voice from his dreams, sure. But there had been no languages. Here, he would have expected Onni´s accent to sound like Tuuri´s, which meant, there basically was no accent, but… well… Onni was barely understandable.

“…Hello? Did this thing turn off again?” The Finn was starting to sound impatient. 

Reynir quickly stopped Kitty, who was already inhaling for a second yell into the mic.

“Ah! Sorry! I didn´t expect your Icelandic to sound so… um… bad. I mean special! I-I´ll get used to it.”

The pause that followed felt like Onni was slightly offended. But he sounded just as calm as before when he spoke again.

“Did you have a question?”

“Oh, yes! Two, actually. But first of all: thank you for last night, that was awesome!”

“Yes, yes.”

“Okay, so, remember the ghost things that attacked us?”

Onni did, but didn´t know either what they were. And Kitty´s helpful “ghost!” into the microphone every now and then didn´t really improve the conversation. At least she seemed to have fun. Regardless, they came to the conclusion that the weird shadows used to be humans and that this was not a good sign. Onni would teach Lalli spells for protection, but those wouldn´t work for Reynir, as his gods gave him a different kind of magic.

“And your other question?”, the Finn asked.

“So, Kisa-“

“Kisa!”, Kitty shouted into the mic.

“The one who called me? The Kitten? Can you… put her somewhere far away, _please_?”

“Sorry. Sure.”

He pushed the child off his lap.  
“You are too loud. You can come back if you´re quiet.”

She just hissed.

“Please stop apologizing. It´s annoying”, Onni grumbled.

“Sorry, I mean yes. Anyway, we found her here, in Denmark. Do you think she is a mage?”

“Obviously.”

“Can you teach her spells? Or me?”

“… What does she believe in?”

Reynir watched the child, who was currently pushing a second chair to the radio, with a concentrated look.

“Did it turn off again-“

“No!”  
Had Onni ever worked with a radio before?

“I mean, I don´t know. What she believes in, that is. She can´t speak Icelandic. Or, just a bit. Only Danish. Actually, she can´t really speak at all.”

For a while, Onni said nothing.

“Was she ever in contact with the known world? Before you found her?”

“I don´t think so.”

“Then, she probably can´t learn from either of us. She most likely has her own religion. And magic. From what I saw, it was different from both Finnish and Icelandic magic.”

“That´s a shame. So she can´t help us.”

“She may learn on her own. The first mages managed, so why not she.”

“Maybe. Thanks anyway. Goodbye.”

“Hm.”

In that moment, Tuuri came in to ask something in Finnish, Onni answered something. Reynir gave up his seat. As usual, Kitty followed him.

“There has to be something we can do to help, right?”, he asked the little girl once they were outside.

“Help!”, she assured.

Reynir sighed. “But, what?”


End file.
